`Lincoln No Hack`

FORT WAYNE, IND. — William Safire is wrong to say that historians since Carl Sandburg have depicted Abraham Lincoln as a ``party hack.`` Lincoln was a good party man whose entire public career was acted out in the heyday of political parties, before their 20th-Century decline.

Mr. Safire, whose column of Feb. 15, criticized New York Gov. Mario Cuomo`s Lincoln birthday speech in Springfield, Ill., was not present to hear the speech or the scholarly papers which preceded it. I was present and heard them all. In truth, the technical papers depicted Lincoln as a man who repeatedly put party ahead of self. That is not my idea of a ``party hack.``